What is the effect on the language learning and verbalization of autistic children of reducing (a) visual stimulation, (b) auditory stimulation, or (c) both? Prior investigators have explained autism as either a biological, a psychological or a social phenomenon; in contrast, we view autism from a holistic perspective as a multi-determined disorder involving biological, psychological and social components. We believe that, due to weak perceptual reflexes, some children are unable to process normal inputs, suffer from "input overload", and block out most inputs (including speech) that are normally processed by the left hemisphere. We propose to give the child control over inputs by using an auditory prosthetic and an analogous visual device. Two series of studies will involve 12-14 children to test the effects of general and specific sensory reductions. Each study employs six groups of two children under three experimental conditions of stimulation, interspersed with a baseline control condition: reduced visual/normal auditory (V); reduced auditory/normal visual (A); and reduced visual and auditory (V+A). Possible order effects are balanced out. The first series of studies uses varied stimulation in a small room (experimenter controls input); the second uses the prosthetic devices in a natural environment (child controls input). Dependent variables are (1) observed number of verbalizations and (2) incidence of inappropriate behaviors. We expect a reduction in inappropriate behavior to occur under all experimental conditions, but we expect an increase in verbalization only as a result of conditions A and V+A, a subsequent use of language for behavioral self-control, and increased independence. During year two and year three, two series of programmatic studies will be initiated to evaluate behaviorally oriented strategies for developing language and behavioral self-control.